Create a Customized Milk Station for Mom

The Milk Music™, powered by Slacker, streaming service turns your mom's shiny new Galaxy smartphone into the perfect tool to listen to the tunes she loves. Milk doesn't require a login to use and is, for a limited time, ad-free. With more than 200 curated genre stations encompassing a collection of more than 13 million songs, Milk delivers fresh songs all day, every day. With so much to choose from it may be hard to find the station that’s just right for your Mom, so why not give your mom a personalized Mother's Day gift by creating one or more custom stations, using her favorite songs or artists.

Getting Started

Write down a list of songs and artists to use as a starting point for the station. Keep in mind that a Milk station is not static like a playlist, so your mom won't hear just the songs you pick; instead, it's a constantly-evolving list of songs, based on your entries when you created it and how your mom interacts with the station—favoriting songs and adding artists. Because of this, try to stick to a particular theme for each station you create. You can add up to 50 songs or artists to a custom station, so the theme can be as specific as you want.

Picking the Themes

How you pick the songs and artists is up to you. You can, of course, just ask your mom what she'd like, but you can also consult other family members on the sly and surprise her with stations based on their suggestions. Above all, try to think of all the music your mom might enjoy, or has enjoyed throughout her life—and be sure to include the small moments.

Her current workout playlist is a good starting point for a station, of course, as is a list of artists that were popular when your mom was a young girl, but there is no reason to stop there. Ask your dad what song played when your parents went on their first date, when your dad proposed, and for their first dance at their wedding; think back to all the times your mom would play or sing a song over and over; listen to what she hums while she's cooking, working or doing chores; try to remember what was playing when you went on road trips or on a holiday, over Christmas, for birthdays, every Sunday at lunch—Milk's music library spans the old and the new, the popular and the obscure.

Creating the Stations

List in hand, it's time to set up the custom stations on your mom's phone. First, grab the Milk app, if it's not installed already—you can find it on Google Play or on Samsung Apps, as well as from the Galaxy Essentials widget on the Samsung Galaxy S5.

From within the app, tap the menu button and then select "Create Station." Type a song or artist on your list into the search field to bring up matching results in Milk's catalog and then tap a result to instantly create a station. Once you've set it up, select “Manage My Stations” to fine tune the station so it’s perfect for mom. Tap “Edit Station” and enter the artists you have gathered into the “Station Seeds” section. As the finishing touch, rename the station—make it sentimental to show how much she means to you or come up with something funny that will make her laugh out loud. The station will be available in the My Stations section of the dial on the app's main screen, as well as in the drop-down station menu.

Fine-Tuning What Plays

Once you've created all the custom stations you want, select each using the dial on the app's main screen and then swipe up to reveal the three fine-tuning sliders. Depending on each station's inspiration, you might want to adjust these or leave them alone. For a station based on your mom's favorite golden oldies, for example, you will likely want to drag the "New" slider to the left and the "Popular" one to the right, so the station plays mainly songs that are both old and popular. The "Favorite" slider simply controls how often songs that are marked as favorites play, so show it to your mom and leave it for her to adjust.

The Final Touches

You can create the custom stations for your mom, but she must add the final touches herself. As she listens to each station, she'll undoubtedly run into songs she loves, whether or not she's heard them before. When this happens, she can add them to her favorites. To do this, she taps the "Song Options" menu while the song is still playing and then "Favorite Song." Alternatively, she can tap the menu button, select "History" to see a list of recently-played songs, tap the contextual button by the title of the song she liked and select "Like Song." As she adds songs to her list of favorites, the station will adjust and evolve, becoming more and more customized over time.

Station Recommendations

Need some inspiration? Check out our existing stations for ideas or add a variety of those stations to mom’s list. Pick ones you know she’ll really like or go with something that introduces her to new favorites. Below is a list of our recommendations. Simply select one to listen to it on your mobile device. Don’t have the Milk Music app? Download it here.

Mothers of Music: To celebrate the hardest working and most under-appreciated person in all of our lives, we have created the “Mothers of Music” spotlight station. In celebration of Mother’s Day and to say thank you for all they do, this station features empowering songs by great singers who also happen to be great moms, not to mention other pop culture music icons paying homage to the matriarchs in their own creative ways.

Ladies of Country: If mom’s favorite country artists include classic legends like Patsy Cline and Loretta Lynn as well as current superstars Miranda Lambert and Carrie Underwood, then she’ll love the station that spotlights the women who make country music great.

Pop Workout: Pump up mom’s workout with a station that combines today's hits with today's gym session. Mom will hear the best motivational and up-tempo Pop hits and high-energy remixes to give her that added boost on the treadmill or bike.

Ladies of Hip Hop: Our tribute to female MCs and hip-hop groups will have mom dancing around the house to her own beat. She’ll hear the ladies that broke down barriers like JJ Fad and MC Lyte, 90s superstars Missy Elliot and Foxy Brown, along with today's trendsetters Azealia Banks and Angel Haze.

Indie Rockero: If cutting-edge music from all over Latin America and Spain is mom’s thing, then she’ll loving listening to indie stars like Ely Guerra, Kinky and División Minúscula. Whether the songs are in English or Spanish, they’re all unified by a common indie ethos.

Legends of Motown: Motown defined an era and dazzled the world with a steady stream of superstars, from Marvin Gaye to the Supremes. Give mom a station featuring all her favorite legends and filled to the brim with beloved hits and classic deep cuts.

Indie Coffee House: Mom can think of this station as a cool afternoon at her favorite haunt featuring singer songwriters, folk rock and more. It provides the perfect soundtrack for writing in a journal, enjoying a coffee away from the craziness, and escaping everyday life.

Top Disney Classics: If mom is a true Disney fan, she’ll enjoy celebrating Disney’s 90th anniversary with its greatest 90 songs. Curated by veteran Disney producer Randy Thornton, she’ll hear all the magic from "Snow White" to "Toy Story 2."

Photo Credits:
Samsung

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